Re: [PATCH 2/2] push: add '-d' as shorthand for '--delete'

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Dec 14, 2015, 21:18 UTC
Message-ID: <20151214211856.GF14788@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <1450106584-22313-2-git-send-email-ps@pks.im>

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 04:23:04PM +0100, Patrick Steinhardt wrote:

Show 10 quoted lines

> It is only possible to delete branches on remotes by specifying
> the long '--delete' flag. The `git-branch` command, which can be
> used to delete local branches with the same '--delete' flag, also
> accepts the shorthand '-d'. This may cause confusion for users
> which are frequently using the shorthand form of deleting local
> branches and subsequently try to use the same shorthand for
> `git-push`, which will fail.
> 
> Fix this usability issue by adding the '-d' shorthand to
> `git-push` and document it.

I think we didn't give it "-d" originally, because we usually avoid allocating short-options (which are a limited resource) until an option has proven itself.

At this point, it seems that "--delete" is useful, and nothing else has been proposed for "-d" in the intervening years. It seems like a reasonable use of the flag to me.

I have been bitten by this myself. I know about "git push origin :ref-to-delete", of course, but my brain would much rather type "-d" (and it's also easier when piping to xargs).

-Peff